Dmg File Software Installers Instead

As we mentioned above, dmg2iso can be used to convert DMG to ISO.

Tim Fisher has 30 years professional technology support experience.

He writes troubleshooting content and is the General Manager of Lifewire.

Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12 years experience working in the IT industry support and management positions.

Open one on a Mac automatically or with HFSExplorer or 7-Zip on Windows.

Convert to ISO, ZIP, IMG, and others with AnyToISO, CloudConvert, or DMG2IMG.

This article describes what DMG files are, how to open one on various operating systems, and how to convert one to another archive format like ISO or IMG.

A file with the DMG file extension is an Apple Disk Image file, or sometimes called a Mac OS X Disk Image file, which is basically a digital reconstruction of a physical disc.

Dmg File Software Installers Instead

For this reason, a DMG is often the file format used to store compressed software installers instead of having to use a physical disc.

Youll most likely only see them when downloading macOS software from the internet.

This macOS disk image format supports compression, file spanning, and encryption, so some DMG files might be password protected.

Versions of Mac newer than OS X 9 support DMG files, while the older Mac OS Classic uses the IMG file format for the same purpose.

DMG files are intended for Macs, so opening one on a Mac is very simple.

A DMG file is mounted as a drive and is treated by the operating system as if it were a physical hard drive, making it really easy to view its contents.

The software you download for your Mac in a DMG format can be opened like any other file on a Mac, and then the setup program can be run to install the software.

A DMG file can certainly be opened in Windows, but that doesnt mean you can actually use anything you find within it.

For example, say a DMG file isnt just storing compressed files like images and videos but is instead holding a software program.

To use the same program in Windows, you need to download the Windows version, not the Mac DMG version.

However, assuming the DMG file just contains files like images or videos (which are likely in a format thats also compatible with Windows), or you want to just see whats inside the DMG file, you should have no problem using one of the below programs to view them.

Windows can open a DMG file with any compressiondecompression program that supports the format.

PeaZip and 7-Zip, both free, support opening DMG files in Windows.

Catacombae HFSExplorer can view DMG files on Windows, too (and Linux), but also lets you create new DMG files.

If you need to mount a DMG file in Windows, but dont want to convert it to ISO first, a few programs do support this, like WinCDEmu, Virtual CloneDrive, and Pismo File Mount Audit Package.